Gillian Reynolds reviews the week in radio, including File on 4 (Radio
4), which examined the storage of our old nuclear waste.

Only a week ago, before the Scottish cardinal’s resignation started sharing headlines with the Lib-Dem conundrum of who knew what and when, the BBC was top of the news.

Radio 4’s The Media Show duly reported last Wednesday on the two stories then being drawn to the nation’s attention: first, the appointments of a new director of policy and a new radio boss; second, the publication in redacted form of the Pollard review into the Corporation’s handling of a story it never broadcast, that of allegations against Jimmy Savile, deceased. The Media Show covered both briskly and well. One day perhaps it, or Law In Action, You and Yours, More or Less, or even Today might tell us how much the BBC, the BBC Trust and BBC employees have spent on lawyers for all this. I live in hope. BBC radio is more likely to tell us, if anyone ever does, because it is, overall, more responsive, inquisitive and informative, more often, at broader range and deeper levels, than BBC TV.

Examples? This Eurosceptic Isle (Radio 4, Monday) was an examination by James Landale, the BBC’s deputy political editor, of why Euroscepticism has entered the political mainstream and how this higher profile has been achieved. George Eustice recalled how he had drawn together the disparate anti-EU organisations to make a more effective force and spoke of the greater representation of anti-EU opinion among new MPs (the 2010 intake) and at the top of the Tory party. Business, we heard, is less Euro-inclined than it was.

Pro-Europeans were represented by Neil Kinnock and Peter Mandelson, the latter blaming the press for driving Europhobia but admitting the Euro was launched before it was ready. If it seemed odd to give Nigel Farage of Ukip such a handy platform in the week of the Eastleigh by-election I can only assume Landale knows his Representation of the People Act better than I do. Even as an old fashioned pro-European I was glad to hear his programme. It explained a lot.

Yesterday’s The Life Scientific (Radio 4) did a similar job. This newspaper last week carried a significant exclusive, about Britain’s imminent crisis in fuel supply. It later cropped up in broadcast news and its main point, that governments have not taken serious decisions early enough about what future power sources should be, was graspable. What wasn’t so clear was why? On The Life Scientific Jim Al-Khalili talked to Sue Ion, former technical director of British Nuclear Fuels, about how she had become a nuclear engineer, the fluctuations in nuclear’s reputation, the arguments for it becoming a new main source of power, the reasons why investment had not been made in it.

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Meanwhile, File on 4 (Radio 4, Tuesday, repeated Sunday) had examined the storage of our old nuclear waste, its dangers (not as bad as once thought but still considerable) and its cost (mammoth). As I listened yesterday to Dr Ion’s businesslike practical arguments for nuclear power, the back of my mind kept squeaking feebly about what I’d learned last week. My inner eye, however, remained fixed on her image of the massive offshore wind farm out in the North Sea, 1500 turbines in an area as big as Greater London, that would be necessary to replace the (soon to close) Sizewell B nuclear power station.

That’s the thing about radio. It may not necessarily change your mind but it will help expand it. When was the last time you could say that of a TV documentary?

Yet radio is full of handy exits from reality. Danny Baker’s Saturday morning show on Radio 5 Live is one of my favourites, as will be Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section (Radio 4, Sunday evening) for the next five weeks. I had two for the price of one last Sunday as Baker was one of The Horne Section’s guests, singing Flash, Bang, Wallop with all the gusto of someone who’s been waiting for the moment for many a year.

Should your next Sunday start sinking under the weight of the latest scares and scandals let me also recommend Radio 3’s The Choir which has taken on new life under the presentation of various choir conductors. Last week it was Harry Christophers, vividly exploring the flame of faith in choral music old and new. Aled Jones, who hosted The Choir for seven years, moves to his own new series on Classic FM this Sunday.